Theme of ICBO 2026¶
The International Conference on Biological and Biomedical Ontology (ICBO) is a premier annual conference series covering the development and application of ontologies for biological and medical domains.
The emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) is fundamentally altering the landscape of biomedical research, knowledge integration, and scientific communication. However, the rapid acceleration of data generation does not inherently lead to improved scientific understanding. As AI systems increasingly mediate the synthesis of knowledge, the requirements for semantic rigor, ontological grounding, and data trustworthiness become more paramount.
ICBO 2026 invites contributions exploring the critical role of ontologies and semantic technologies (including formal semantics based Knowledge Graph) in developing trustworthy, interpretable, and AI-ready ecosystems. We welcome research across the domains of biology, medicine, health, behavioral science, environmental health, and food systems.
While GenAI offers powerful capabilities for data processing and synthesis, it serves as a complement to, not a replacement for, formal semantics, logical consistency, and community-curated knowledge structures.
Important Dates at a Glance¶
| Milestone | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Early Bird Registration | |
| Workshop & Tutorial Proposals | March 30, 2026 |
| Direct-to-Journal Track | April 15, 2026 |
| Main Conference Papers | May 1, 2026 |
| Posters & Software Demos | |
| Conference | July 15–17, 2026 |
Call for Submissions & All Deadlines
Keynote & Invited Speakers¶
Keynote Speaker¶
Invited Speakers¶
Topics of Interest¶
Accepted Workshops¶
15th Vaccine and Drug Ontology Studies (VDOS) 2026¶
The VDOS workshop explores innovative solutions and challenges in the ontological representation of drugs and vaccines, covering administration, immune responses, adverse events, and drug interactions. This year's focus extends to how AI and large language models can revolutionize ontology studies, enhancing literature mining, meta-analysis, and complex data interpretation.
Cell Type Knowledge in the Age of Foundation Models and Agentic AI: Bridging ML, Omics, Literature, and Ontologies¶
This workshop brings together researchers working at the intersection of single-cell and spatial omics, agentic AI, and biomedical ontologies to explore how foundation models and knowledge graphs can scale cell type curation, improve ML model interpretability, and bridge data-driven cell phenotypes with curated classical knowledge.
Accepted Talks¶
| # | Title | Primary Author/Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Investigating the use of an ontology for grounding LLMs: Using GraphRAG with the Foundational Model of Anatomy | Melissa Clarkson |
| 2 | The ROBOKOP Biomedical Knowledge Graph System: Leveraging Ontologies for Data Normalization, Integration, and Query | Karamarie Fecho |
| 3 | Frontier LLM-based agents can overcome the ontology curation bottleneck for natural phenotypes | James Balhoff |
| 4 | Consistent but Incorrect: Detecting Discrepancies in Ontologies | Christian Kindermann |
| 5 | Evidencell - an agentic research assistant for the Cell Ontology | David Osumi-Sutherland |
| 6 | ACCELERATE-BASSO: Advancing Behavioral and Social Science Research through Ontology Best Practices | Cui Tao |
| 7 | OnTEPT: A multimodal OWL ontology for post-traumatic stress disorder | Diego M. López |
Domains of Interest¶
Submissions are encouraged within, but not limited to:
- Biomedical and biological research
- Clinical and public health data integration
- Physical and mental wellness and behavioral science
- Environmental health, food systems, and sustainability
- Regulatory science and policy-making
Community¶
Sponsors¶
Contact Information¶
Please direct all questions to Asiyah Yu Lin — ontology.world@gmail.com